Prince Harry reveals the 'central piece' of rift with royal family in new ...
Prince Harry has revealed the “central piece” that contributed to the breakdown of his relationship with the royal family.
The Duke of Sussex, 39, has blamed his legal battles with the British tabloids for worsening his relations with the Firm, adding that his estranged family’s unwillingness to fight against them has also added fuel to the fire.
“I think that’s certainly a central piece to it,” Harry told ITV’s Rebecca Barry as part of the network’s new documentary titled “Tabloids on Trial.”
“But that’s a hard question to answer, because anything I say about my family results in a torrent of abuse from the press,” he added.
The new hour-long documentary focuses on the 2011 phone hacking scandal, as well as the multiple lawsuits Harry has brought forward against publishers in recent years.
“I’ve made it very clear that this is something that needs to be done, it would be nice if we did it as a family,” the father of two said.
“I believe that from a service standpoint and when you’re in a public role, these are the things that we should be doing for the greater good. I’m doing this for my reasons.”
“I think everything that’s played out has shown people what the truth of the matter is,” he went on, adding that his family’s lack of action has also disheartened him.
“For me, the mission continues, but yes, it’s caused part of a rift,” he added.
The prince, who quit royal life in 2020 and moved to the US with his wife Meghan Markle, was awarded $180,700 in December 2023 after London’s High Court ruled he had been the victim of “modest” phone-hacking and other unlawful information gathering by journalists on British newspapers.
Harry — who became the first senior British royal in 130 years to give evidence in court when he appeared as the star witness at the trial in June 2023 — had sued Mirror Group Newspapers, the publisher of the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People in 2019.
The royal said he was targeted by MGN for 15 years from 1996 and that more than 140 stories which appeared in its papers were the result of unlawful information gathering, though the trial only considered 33 of these.
Last month, the duke was accused of “deliberately destroying” potential evidence in his phone hacking claim against the publisher of The Sun.
More than six months after the ruling, an attorney for the publisher of the British tabloid claimed that Harry engaged in “shocking” and “extraordinary” obfuscation.
Attorney Anthony Hudson said at High Court that Harry had deliberately destroyed text messages with the ghostwriter who penned his bombshell memoir, “Spare,” released in Jan. 2023.
The Duke’s lawyer has since denied the claims, saying News Group Newspapers was engaging in a “classic fishing expedition” by requesting documents so late in the case.
Harry must now personally disclose how drafts of his protocol-shattering book, as well as messages between him and his ghostwriter, were destroyed “well after” he launched the lawsuit five years ago.
